


University of Texas Bulletin 

No. 2226: July 8, 1922 



County Unit of School Administration in Texas 



BY 

E. E. DAVIS 

Specialist in Rural Education 
Bureau of Extension 

In Collaboration with 

T. H. SHELBY 

Director of the Bureau of Extension 




PU BUSH ED BY 

THB UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

AUSTIN 



^^^^^:^<iy^|^^ 



Publications of the University of Texas 

Publications Committee: 



Frederic Duncalf 
G. C. Butte 
KiLLis Campbell 
F. W. Graff 



J. L. Henderson 
E. J. Mathews 
H. J. Muller 
A. E. Trombly 



Hal C. Weaver 



The University publishes bulletins four times a month, 
30 numbered that the first two digits of the number show 
the year of issue, the last two the position in the yearly 
series. (For example, No. 2201 is the first bulletin of the 
year 1922.) These comprise the official publications of the 
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letins of general educational interest. With the exception 
of special numbers, any bulletin will be sent to a citizen of 
Texas free on request. All communications about Univer- 
sity publications should be addressed to University Publica- 
tions, University of Texas, Austin. 



University of Texas Bulletin 

No. 2226: July 8, 1922 



County Unit of School Administration in Texas 



E.B. DAVIS 

Specialist in Rural Education 
Bureau of Extension 

In Collaboration with 
T> H. SHELBY 

Director of the Bureau of Extension 




PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY FOUR TIMES A MONTH, AND ENTERED 
SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POSTOFFICE AT AUSTIN. TEXAS, 
UNDER THE ACT OF AUGUST 24, 1912 



h 



?.?' 



f^'f 



3 



The benefits of education and of 
useful knowledge, generally diffused 
through a community, are essential 
to the preservation of a free govern- 
ment. 

Sam Houston 



Cultivated mind is the guardian 
genius of democracy. ... It is the 
only dictator that freemen acknowl- 
edge and the only security that free- 
men desire. 

Mirabeau B. Lamar 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter I. The Place of the County in Public School 

Finance 1 

Chapter II. The County Unit of School Administra- 
tion in the United States 20 

Chapter III. The Office of County Superintendent in 

Texas 29 

Chapter IV. The County Board of Education 45 

Chapter V. The District Board of School Trustees 54 

Chapter VI. Summary of the Advantages of the 
County Unit System Over the District 
System of School Control 58 



CHAPTER I 

THE PLACE OF THE COUNTY IN PUBLIC SCHOOL 

FINANCES 

1. Stating the Case 

(a) The Case of Travis County, Texas. Austin, the 
capital of Texas, is located near the center of Travis County. 
The western part of Travis County is mountainous and very 
sparsely settled. The land is very poor. Most of it is used 
for goat pasture and is rendered to the tax assessor at two 
dollars per acre. In general, the people are of the moun- 
taineer type and possess much physical hardihood. But 
most of them are very poor. 

In the heart of this mountainous territory, just fifteen 
miles ,f rom the magnificent dome of the state capitol at 
Austin, is the Pleasant Valley School District. In the sum- 
mer of 1919 the people of the Pleasant Valley community 
voted bonds to the amount of $2,000 to build a new modern 
two-room schoolhouse. The people were unanimous in their 
desire for a better school for their red-blooded mountaineer 
children. They were simply crying out for better educa- 
tional facilities. 

When the bonds reached the Attorney General's office for 
inspection, they could not be approved. They were rejected 
because the total taxable wealth of the district was so very 
small that only $500 in bonds could be legally issued against 
it. The new schoolhouse was not built. A veritable old 
stable was provided with a new roof, a new floor, and an 
extra window or two, and school is being conducted there 
today. In this district, a fifty-cent school tax produces only 
$91.83 per year, which is only $4.84 per child of free-school 
age. On the other hand, in some of the wealthy farming 
districts in the eastern part of the county, a fifty-cent tax 
produces more than $20 per child. 

Adjacent to the Pleasant Valley district are the Cox 
Springs District, the Travis/ Peak District and a number of 
others that are very poor in material wealth. Private 
Simpson, one of the greatest heroes of the World War, 



6 University of Texas Bulletin 

came from this poverty-stricken locality. In a single- 
handed fight he captured a German machine gun in a shell 
hole in No Man's Land, turned it on the enemy's columns 
and cut them down like weeds before a scythe as they ad- 
vanced across the level terrain. Three times he turned 
them back in utter route, holding them off for an entire 
afternoon, while the broken ranks of his comrades were 
being reformed. He was decorated for bravery by the 
French government and again decorated by the people of 
Austin when he returned home. 

The gods were kind in their gift of body and mind to 
this unobtrusive "squirrel shooter" from the hills of Travis 
County. But Travis County and the State of Texas have 
been derelict in their duty of providing him with the op- 
portunities for an education. Though there reside in him 
the God-given possibilities of a great and useful man, to- 
day he can scarcely read and write the English language, 
his mother tongue. He is a wood chopper and a day laborer 
in his home community, incapable of putting his unusual 
powers to use as an able community benefactor. If the 
government has the right to draft Private Simpson for 
military service, it is morally obligated to provide him and 
all his mountaineer neighbors and their children with bet- 
ter educational advantages. 

The benefits of free and equal educational privileges are 
not being uniformly provided for all the people of Travis 
County. This condition will continue as it is so long as the 
ad valorem tax of the school district is the chief source of 
school support. Our system is at fault. The county, as well 
as the school district, should be one of the units of taxation 
for school purposes. In every county of Texas the wealthier 
districts, the railroads and other corporations should help 
provide better schools for the poorer districts. 

(b) The Farm-Tenant Community Dominated by Ab- 
sentee Landlords. Four years ago twenty-three farm ten- 
ants signed a petiton for a school tax election in a common 
school district in one of the wealthiest black-land counties 
of Texas. Five non-resident landlords objected. The tax 
was defeated in the election that followed. Then, in order 



County Unit of School Administration 7 

to have a' six months' term of school, sixteen of the tenants 
by mutual consent assessed themselves $7.50 for each team 
of horses or mules used in their farm operations. In this 
way they raised $157.50. They appHed $27.50 of this 
amount to repairs on the old schoolhouse. The remaining 
$130 provided two months of salary for the teacher who 
tried to teach the forty-seven children in that community 
for one-hundred and twenty days during the school year of 
1915-1916. 

Until outside assistance is given to some farm-tenant 
communities in Texas now economically helpless because 
of artificial pressure over which they have no control, their 
schools must continue in a state of most abject squalor. A 
county-wide school tax would do much toward the ameliora- 
tion of this unfortunate condition. 

(c) The Rich Distinct with an Abundance of Wealth 
Produced by no Effort of Its Own. One of the largest oil 
companies in the country recently located a great tank farm 
within the confines of a certain common-school district. 
It has constructed more than one hundred gigantic reser- 
voirs containing thousands of barrels of oil worth millions 
of dollars. This school district has had wealth literally 
thrust upon it. A tax rate insignificantly small produces an 
abundance of revenue for the school. 

In another common-school district an oil field has been 
recently developed. Land that had a commercial value of 
less than f6rty dollars per acre before the discovery of oil 
has since brought as high as ten thousand dollars per acre. 
It now looks as if this common-school district will be obliged 
to reduce its tax rate to possibly as little as one cent on the 
one hundred dollars in order to avoid the accumulation of 
more school revenues than it knows what to do with. 

In the northern part of a certain East Texas county the 
virgin pines are still standing. There are thousands of 
them straight as arrows and one hundred feet tall. This 
uncut timber has a commercial value of from $100 to $400 
per acre. A fifteen-cent tax often produces all the school 
funds that are needed. But in the southern part of this 



8 . University of Texas Bulletin 

same county the pines have been cut away and manufac- 
tured into lumber and cross-ties. The land, now covered 
with sage grass and dead pine stumps, is worth about $15 
per acre. Many of the country schools are starving for 
funds because a fifty-cent tax, or a dollar tax, does not pro- 
duce sufficient revenue to give them competent teachers 
and adequate equipment. . 

Mines, oil fields, refineries, factories, timber lands, rail- 
roads, pipelines, and all other forms of wealth should be 
made to participate uniformly in the support of the free 
schools of our land. This uniformity can never be possible 
so long as the school district remains the chief source of 
financial support for our free schools. A county-wide tax 
for the support of public education would do much to cor- 
rect many of the inequalities and injustices that now exist 
in the financial support of the free schools of Texas. 

2. The County As A Unit of Taxation for School 

Purposes 

Ignorance is a menace to any community. Even the edu- 
cated are badly handicapped when they have ignorant 
neighbors. In self-defense, the cultured and the wealthy 
must help the ignorant and the poor to become educated. 
An educational system is badly at fault when it permits a 
portion of a county or a portion of a state to produce ig- 
norant, inefficient people to be turned loose on 'the rest of 
the state. In the future, the county and the state must give 
more financial succor to the free schools of the improvident 
districts and townships. Education is for the good of all. 
The persons, the corporations, and the centers of wealth 
that would profit from all the advantages arising from gen- 
eral culture and public education without doing their share 
in defraying the expenses of the free schools are covetous, 
shortsighted and unpatriotic. They are poor subjects for a 
free government. 

To maintain schools in the country as good as those of 
the towns and cities would require a much higher tax rate 
for the rural tax payer than for the city tax payer. This is 



County Unit of School Administration 9 

because the per capita wealth is greater in the urban cen- 
ters than in the rural districts. Railroad terminals, ware- 
houses, office buildings, expensive hotels, banks, and all sorts 
of factories and other commercial establishments have made 
the cities great centers of wealth. This gives the school 
districts at the industrial centers along the railroads a 
tremendous financial advantage over the school districts of 
the country. 

Again, we must not forget that it costs relatively more to 
maintain a small school in a sparsely settled community 
than it does to maintain a large school in a populous dis- 
trict. The burden of support is much greater when ten 
taxpayers have to maintain a $1,000 school than it is when 
fifty taxpayers maintain a $3,000 school. In the future, if 
we would have all the people equally well educated, the 
greater part of the funds with which to educate them will 
have to be derived from state and county taxation. The 
wealthier portions of each county must help the poorer 
portions maintain a uniformly good system of schools for 
the good of all. 

It is eminently just that the industrial centers of great 
wealth should help educate the children of the poorer com- 
munities. The country people are producers of raw ma- 
terial and consumers of finished goods. They have helped 
build the cities. They also help maintain them. The cities 
are making a continuous profit off of the country people 
in two transactions, viz., when they purchase raw supplies 
from them, and when they sell finished articles to them. 
Without the country and the country people, the cities and 
the great industrial centers could not exist. It is right 
that the wealth of the city and the wealth of the country 
should participate uniformly in the educating of all the chil- 
dren for the common good. 

For the poorer districts, under present conditions, there 
is little hope. Short school terms and poor schoolhouses 
are their inevitable lot so long as the district system lasts. 
Until the possibilites of the county system can be realized 
there will continue to be school districts lying side by side, 
the one having a model school plant and the other the poorest 



10 University of Texas Bulletin 

sort of schoolhouse. Under a highly developed county sys- 
tem with the county board of education in charge of all the 
schools of the county, and with a county tax for school 
equipment and school maintenance, the opportunities for 
education in the poorer districts can be greatly improved. 

3. The Case of Wichita County, Texas 

Figure No. 1 on page 11 shows the financial condition 
of the rural schools of Wichita County as it exists under 
the present district system of financial support. The strik- 
ing thing about this figure is that the districts with the 
highest school tax rates have the smallest amounts of school 
funds and those with the lowest school tax rates have the 
largest amounts of school funds. Notice that Districts Nos. 
13, 16 and 22 have had to reduce their tax rates from 50 
cents to 5 cents, 20 cents, and 20 cents, respectively, in order 
to keep from having more school funds than they can use. 
On the other hand. Districts Nos. 23, 24, and 25 with tax 
rates of 100 cents, 100 cents, and 90 cents, respectively, came 
out in debt at the end of the school year. 

The county as an intermediate unit of school support be- 
tween the district and the state would tend to equalize the 
costs and the opportunities of education among all of the 
districts in the county. As it now stands, the poor districts 
are paying more and the rich districts are paying less than 
their just shares of the cost of public education in the 
county. The richer the district the lower its school tax rate 
and the poorer the district the higher its school tax rate. 
The wealth per school child in Wichita County varies from 
$3,623 in District No. 23 to $17,127 in District No. 16. The 
school tax rate in District No. 23 is 100 cents, while in Dis- 
trict No. 16 it is only 20 cents. Last year the district with 
the 20 cent tax had a balance of $119.45 per school child left 
in the school treasury at the close of the school, while the 
district with the 100 cent tax had a deficit of $8.93 per 
child when school closed. Conditions similar to this exist 
^*n a great many other counties of Texas. 



County Unit of School Administration 



11 



Number 

of 
District 


Balances per Scholastic 

Brought Forward 

to 1921-22 


Number 

of 
District 


1 
2 
3 








$.00 

$39.07 

.77 


1 
2 
3 


1 






5 


1 






$.27 


5 


6 








$16.44 


6 


7 


■Mi 






$13.14 


7 


8 








$4.10 


8 


9 


1 






$1.73 


9 


10 


^ 






$7.64 


10 


11 




$2.18 (Over draft) 


11 


12 
13 

14 








$16.22 

$44.52 

$7.60 

$19.18 


12 
13 
14 








15 


^^^ 


■ 


15 


16 






^ 


$119.45 

$22.82 
$12.96 


IS 


17 




^^H 


17 


19 


H. 






19 


20 




■ 




$17.76 


20 


21 


■" 






$9.95 


21 


22 






aa 


s^da d(\ 


22 


23 




$8.93 


(Over draft) 


23 


24 




$3.01 


(Over draft) 


24 


25 




$9.21 


(Over draft) 
$33.80 
$26.91 
$22.33 


25 


26 




^^^^^^^■1 


26 










27 




I^^^B 


27 










28 




^^^1 


28 











Tax Rates for 1921-22 





FIGURE No. 1 

Balances in Treasury and Tax Rates in Wichita County 
District for 1921-22 

(Note. — The broken lines indicate that the diagn^am was 
enough to give the full length.) 



50c 

50c 

50c 

50c 

30c 

40c 

40c 

50c 

50c 

50c 

50c 

5c 

50c 

15c 

20c 

40c 

40c 

50c 

40c 

20c 

$1.00 

$1.00 

90c 

50c 

50c 

50c 



School 

not large 



12 University of Texas Bulletin 

4. The School District As a Necessary Unit of School 
Finances Within the County 

If we had an ideal system of public education, most of 
the funds for its support would come from state and county- 
taxation. As has already been shown, this would accom- 
plish two things, viz., (1) It would make the school tax 
rates more uniform throughout the state; (2) It would pro- 
vide equal educational advantages for all the children. The 
weaker districts would be given a better chance, and the 
means for developing a uniformly good citizenship in all 
parts of the state would be greatly improved. But no dis- 
trict, however poor, should ever be entirely exempt from 
the necessity of a school tax. It is good for the district to 
feel the responsibility for its schools. 

For the entire support of public education to fall upon the 
state and county would be a decided mistake. To a certain 
extent, Texas made that mistake long ago. In an early day, 
even in the days of the Republic prior to 1845, the creation 
of our magnificent school fund was begun. The idea then 
was to endow public education permanently and sufficiently 
for all time to come, so that in the future tax levies for 
school purposes would be unnecessary. This was a great 
help to public education during the rugged days prior to the 
Civil War and for fully two decades follovdng that fateful 
event. But contemporaneously with the good it produced, 
one very disastrous result grew out of it, viz., a feeling on 
the part of many communities of total dependence upon the 
state for educational support. Thus, Texas pauperized her 
schools in the beginning. Like helpless orphans, many of 
them still look to the State for support. They are lacking in 
the independence and the spiritual robustness that self- 
effort gives. 

A considerable amount of self-exertion is necessary to 
keep up the esprit de corps of a school community. Com- 
munities, like individuals, appreciate most the things they 
help pay for. For that reason, it would be poor statesman- 
ship to dispense entirely with the school district as a unit 
for school taxation. It is good for the school district to be 



County Unit of School Administration 13 

called upon to supplement the state and county funds. It 
is good for the district school tax to appear as a separate 
item, "Special School Tax/' as it does, in the bills presented 
to the taxpayers by the county tax collectors in Texas. 
When people pay for schools they do so as much out of their 
state of mind as out of their purses. Therein consists one 
of the greatest benefits arising from a local school tax. It 
stimulates educational consciousness among all the laymen 
when all are required to help pay the community's educa- 
tional bills. 

Van Zandt County is one of the very few counties of 
Texas wherein every school district in the county has voted 
a fifty-cent school tax. In some respects it is one of the 
banner rural school counties of Texas. Yet a recent visit 
to that county shows that one of the basic needs of the 
rural schools of the county is a greater degree of local 
financial support. Through low renditions many of the 
most prosperous farming communities are doing very little 
for public education. For example, for the school year of 
1920-1921 the Wallace School received $2,187.50 from the 
State of Texas and raised only $509 through local taxation ; 
the Watkins School received $2,370.50 from, the State and 
raised $842 in local school taxes ; the Edom School received 
$2,823.50 from the State and raised $623 in local school 
taxes; the Myrtle Springs School received $2,916 from the 
State and raised $958 by local taxation. 

Under an ideal system properly fortified with state and 
county funds, it should never become necessary for any 
school district to impose upon itself a greater tax rate than 
one dollar for school purposes. But a wide gulf separates 
the real from the ideal in all that pertains to the public 
schools of Texas. For that reason, public education in 
Texas will have to learn to rely more upon local effort and 
in all probability it will have to keep up the practice for a 
long time to come. 



14 University of Texas Bulletin 

5. More Equitable Methods of Raising and Disbursing 
State and County School Revenues 

(a) Our State Ad Valorem School Taxes. There is a 
frightful lack of uniformity in the amounts of advalorem 
school taxes paid by the various counties of Texas. Some 
counties pay more than their share ; others pay less. This 
is due to a lack of uniformity in the assessment of property 
values by the county tax assessors. For example, farming 
land in one county is assessed at twenty-five dollars per acre 
while farming land of exactly the same character just be- 
yond the fence in another county is assessed at forty dollars 
per acre. In one county the tax assessor was standing for 
re-election and trying to curry favor with the voters, while 
the tax assessor in the adjoining county was less inclined 
to play politics. 

Aside from political reasons, it is the policy of most all 
tax assessors in Texas to protect the counties against their 
proportionate shares of the state taxes by permitting low 
renditions. By comparing the true values of land given in 
the Thirteenth Census in 1910 with the report of the State 
Comptroller in 1911, some startling facts are revealed. For 
example, six counties showed an assessed valuation of as 
much as 90 per cent of their true value ; seven counties be- 
tween 80 and 90 per cent ; thirteen between 70 and 80 per 
cent ; twenty-seven between 60 and 70 per cent ; forty-three 
between 50 and 60 per cent ; sixty-four between 40 and 50 
per cent; thirty-nine between 30 and 40 per cent; thirty 
between 20 and 30 per cent ; and six below 20 per cent. The 
wealthier counties, the famed black-land counties, as a rule, 
render their lands and buildings at less than fifty per cent 
of their true value. Five of the six counties rendering as 
much as 90 per cent of their true values are in East Texas 
and have comparatively small population and wealth.* 

Under the present system, the burden of state advalorem 
school taxes can never be distributed uniformly among the 



*Miller, E. T., A Financial History of Texas, Bull, of the Univer- 
sity of Texas, 1916, No. 37, pp. 278-79. 



County Unit of School Administration 15 

counties according to their respective abilities to pay. All 
taxes for state purposes should be levied against assessments 
uniformly made by some non-partisan state board instead of 
by the great army of politically incumbered county tax as- 
sessors. This would not only be more just than the present 
system, but it should be more economical. There would not 
be any need or justification for the office of county tax as- 
sessor, for in making the tax levies, each county could use 
the valuations made by the state board. 

(b) The Apportionment of School Funds According to 
Scholastic Population Is Founded Upon a Wrong Theory, 
Legislators have assumed that scholastic population is a 
true index of a community's educational needs. This is a 
false assumption. It ignores the element of ability. Two 
factors must be considered in determning a community's 
educational needs: (1) The number of children to be edu- 
cated; (2) The community's ability to educate them. 

There may be two communities with one hundred children 
each. In so far as the number of children is concerned, 
the educational needs of the two communities are the same. 
But one community may contain five times as much wealth 
as the other. Consequently, the poorer community's need 
for state aid is five times as great as that of the wealthier 
community. The apportionment of state school funds ac- 
cording to school population would only serve to accentuate 
the advantage already enjoyed by the wealthier community. 
The better plan would be to apportion state and county 
school funds on the double basis of: (1) need; (2) school 
attendance. 

(c) Many School Districts in Texas Are Receiving a 
Premium from the State for Keeping Children out of School 
In Southwest Texas there are many small schools attended 
by white children only and supported almost entirely by 
state funds apportioned to Mexican children who do not go 
to school. For example, there were thirty-seven white 
children in a country school taught by two teachers. There 
were, at the same time, more than one hundred Mexican 
children residing in the district but not in school. That 
school was a pauper and a loafer — an educational parasite 



16 University of Texas Bulletin 

on the State of Texas. With but one-half or one-fourth of 
the children in attendance, the state apportionment is often 
sufficient to sustain the school for those who do attend. 

That the abuses of non-attendance are not restricted to a 
few isolated cases, but hold throughout entire counties, is 
shown by the following figures taken from the annual re- 
ports of the county superintendents of Texas for the school 
year of 1919-1920. The average daily attendance of the 
children of free-school age in some of the counties with the 
heaviest Mexican population was as follows : Cameron 30.1 
per cent; Hidalgo 23.8 per cent; Zapata 32.1 per cent; Mav- 
erick 12.4 per cent ; Nueces 35.4 per cent ; San Patricio 26.7 
per cent; Jim Wells 20.7 per cent; Bastrop 32.5 per cent; 
Caldwell 37.8 per cent. 

In this same group of counties it is interesting to note 
how much less the annual expenditure per child of school 
age is than the expenditure per child actually attending 
school. This great difference is caused by non-attendance. 
If all the children were in school every day schools are in 
session, the expenditure per child of free-school age would 
be exactly the same as the expenditure per child in actual 
attendance. Column A represents the amount expended 
per child of school age, and column B represents the amount 
expended per child in average daily attendance : 

—'——-■ —A— — B— ■ 

Cameron County $11.95 $48.83 

Hidalgo County 13.37 56.04 

Zapata County 10.10 31.84 

Maverick County 5.80 46.63 

Nueces County 26.87 70.58 

Jim Wells County 15.85 48.05 

Bastrop County 8.52 26,17 

Caldwell County 16.57 53.15 

When measured by school attendance, the State is receiv- 
ing very small dividends on its investments in some schools. 
For illustration, let us take two schools, the Viola School and 
the Bitter Creek School, with one hundred pupils each. The 
one hundred pupils of the Viola school attended every day 
school was in session for eight months, or a total of 16,000 



County Unit of School Administration ' 17 

days; but the one hundred children of the Bitter Creek 
School attended but half of the time for eight months, or a 
total of only 8,000 days. The State invested the same 
amount in each of these two schools. But it received twice 
as much on its investment in the Viola School as it did on its 
investment in the Bitter Creek School. 

State and county school funds should be apportioned to 
the Viola and the Bitter Creek schools on the basis of total 
attendance and on the basis of need rather than on the basis 
of school population. This would place a premium on at- 
tendance instead of on non-attendance. The automatic re- 
sult would be a stricter enforcement of the school attend- 
ance laws. Each district would be obliged to keep its chil- 
dren in school in order to participate to the fullest extent in 
the state free school funds. 

Our state school funds should be apportioned among the 
counties upon the basis of school attendance and financial 
needs, and then reapportioned by the counties to the school 
districts upon the same basis. In the example just given, 
half of the State's investment in the Bitter Creek School was 
wasted because of non-attendance. That was poor business 
on the part of the State. State and county school funds 
should be applied so as to bring the greatest possible returns 
on the investment in the production of a responsible, intelli- 
gent citizenry. 

(d) One-half of the State and County School Funds 
Should Be Apportioned to the School Districts on the Basis 
of Need. All state and county school lunas should oe di- 
vided into two parts : one to be apportioned among the dis- 
tricts on the basis of school attendance, and the other on the 
basis of financial need and reward for effort. In the first 
place, no school district should be allowed to share in the 
state and county school funds until it has first voted a school 
tax of not less than fifty cents. Of course, this naturally 
brings up the question of the backward, obstinate district 
that would steadfastly refuse to vote the required tax. But 
that is no difficult matter to handle. It can be easily taken 
care of in the manner provided on the next page. 

One-half of the state and county school funds should first 



18 • Umversity of Texas Bulletin 

be appoi?fcioned among all the districts on the basis of school 
attendance. Then, if the wealth of any district should be 
so great th^ a local tax of fifty cents or less would provide 
it with adequate schools, there would be no need or justifica- 
tion for its participation further in the state and county 
school funds. The wealthiest districts would be eliminated 
in this way. 

The degree of a district's need because of financial in- 
ability may be easily computed in the following manner : For 
example, in order to meet the minimum requirements of 
the state as to qualifications of teachers, equipment and 
length of school term, the budget of a certain school district 
may require $12,000. The local school tax of fifty cents 
might produce $5,000. The half of the state and county 
school funds apportioned on the basis of attendance, as 
previously set forth, might produce $4,000. That district 
would still need $3,000 in order to meet the minimum re- 
quirements prescribed by the state. This need should be 
met from the remaining half of the unappropriated state 
and county school funds. 

After meeting the requirements set by the state, if a dis- 
trict should desire to vote additional taxes for the further 
improvement of its schools, it should have the privilege 
of doing so. This plan would practically guarantee ade- 
quate financial support for all the schools of the state, and 
at the same time put a premium on self -effort and school 
attendance. 

Now for the district that is backward, indifferent, or un- 
willing to vote a fifty-cent school tax. In the first place, 
most districts in Texas would vote a fifty-cent school tax 
rather than have all state support withheld from them. The 
district so mean and depraved as not to desire a school of 
some sort can scarcely be found. But should such a district 
appear, it could be easily provided for by the enactment of 
a law giving the county board of education the power to 
have it absorbed into some other district by the process of 
consolidation. Then the tax rate of the progressive district 
with which it is consolidated would be automatically ex- 
tended over the backward, recalcitrant district, and it would 



County Unit of School Administration 19 

thus become eligible to all the rights and privileges pertain- 
ing to the state free school system. 

(e) The Case of California. In California, state and 
county school funds are apportioned upon a double basis: 
(1) The number of teachers employed; (2) the school at- 
tendance of the previous year. Each year, before the ap- 
portionments are made, the city and county superintendents 
are required to calculate the number of teachers necessary 
for their respective jurisdictions, on the basis of one teacher 
for each thirty-five pupils in average daily attendance the 
previous year. Then the apportionment of $800 per teacher 
is made. All state and county school moneys then remain- 
ing on hand are apportioned among the several districts in 
proportion to the number of pupils in average daily attend- 
ance the preceding year. 

A new amendment to the state constitution of California 
provides that the state shall contribute not less than $30 
for each pupil in average daily atendance in the elementary 
and high schools. The counties must raise af least $30 for 
each pupil in average daily attendance in the elementary" 
schools and at least $60 for each pupil in average daily at- 
tendance in the high schools. For the school year of 1920- 
1921, the State of Texas appropriated only $14.50 for each 
child, and that is the most liberal appropriation it has ever 
made for its free schools. 

Another observation that Texas might do well to make 
is that the average salary paid to the public school teachers 
of California for the school year of 1917-1918 was $1,052 
compared with $487 for Texas for the same year.* Can it 
be wondered at that the teaching profession in Texas con- 
tains so many young boys and girls and other weaklings. 

In California the schools are supported largely by state 
and county funds, and eight months of school are required 
in all districts. The California system does two things • 
(1) It seeks to provide an adequate number of well-trained 
teachers; (2) It stimulates effort to get children into school 
and keep them in regular attendance. 



♦Bonner, R. H., Statistics of State School Systems for 1917-1918, 
Bull. U. S. Bureau of Education, 1920, No. 11, p. 42. 



CHAPTER II 

The County Unit of School Administration in the 
United States 

Rural education in the United States has three adminis- 
trative units, the local district, the intermediate unit, and 
the state, with final authority vested in the latter. The 
intermediate unit may be a supervisory or administrative 
district as in New York and New England, or a parish or 
county as in Louisiana and Texas. The functions of this 
intermediate unit vary greatly throughout the Union. In 
a study recently made of the intermediate unit in New York 
State, it is pointed out that "the present office of county 
superintendent, almost universally a feature of the inter- 
mediate unit, evolved from lay boards which were, it seems,, 
clearly intermediate in their character The transi- 
tion was in general completed in the reorganization of the 
school system of the Southern States which followed the 
reconstruction period. More recently there has been a de- 
cided trend to the association of a lay board and a 

professional ofl^icer or staff."* 

For purposes of this study it is needless to go into the 
intermediate unit in the various states. As pointed out by 
Dr. Brooks in the study quoted above, the trend throughout 
the United States is to employ a professional officer who 
works within rather narrow statutory limits under control 
of a lay board. The tendency is decidedly in the direction 
of general lay control, such lay board being elected by the 
people. The tendency furthermore is to have this lay board 
to elect the expert professional officer, fix his salary and 
hold him directly responsible for the administration of the 
schools of his territory. ''This combination of professional 
service and lay control is the basis on which our unequalled 



*Brooks, Thomas Dudley: The Lay Element in the Intermediate 
Unit of State School Systems. Waco: Baylor University, Bulletin. 
Vol. XXV, Number 1, p. 1. , 



County Unit of School Administration 21 

American urban school systems have developed."* Pro- 
fessor Brooks points out that in the county system states, 
as distinguished from the states having the supervisory 
district or supervisory union system, two types of adminis- 
tration or control are found, viz., the county board type ur 
the county officer type with the trend decidedly in the direc- 
tion of the former. "In some of the states in which a 
county board is provided, the county unit form of adminis- 
tration is adopted, in which almost all of the administration 
and supervision of the schools of the county are performed 
by the county board and its professional officer or officers, 
few of the original functions being left to the district. In 
other cases the county board serves to furnish a more or 
less comprehensive program of supervision and to perform 
such other administrative functions as the local district 
clearly cannot perform effectively for itself. Twenty-six 
states have one or the other of these types of county boards 

of education, usually known by that name In ten 

states, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, , Lousiana, 
Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah, 
county boards have been assigned most of the powers 
formerly held by the local trustees and these systems repre- 
sent the 'County unit' plan."* It is noteworthy that all ex- 
cept two of these states are in the South. 

It is not within the province of this bulletin to discuss 
the operation of the "County unit" system, in the various 
states where it has been in operation. It is interesting to 
observe, however, how it has operated in two typical 
southern states, namely, Alabama and Lousiana. 

The Parish Unit in Louisiana 

' In Louisiana, the parish (county) has an overlapping 
board elected by the voters of the parish for a term of six 
years. The board has complete control of all the schools in 
the parish, including those of any cities which may be lo- 
cated in the parish. Only two cities in the state, Lake 



*Ibid. p. 6. 
*Ibid. p. 7. 



22 University of Texas Bulletin 

Charles and Monroe, enjoy independence in the administra- 
tion of their schools. 

The parish board elects a parish superintendent from 
anywhere within or without the state, subject to the qual- 
ifications prescribed by the State Board of Education. In 
a recent address before the Conference on Education, Cit- 
izenship and Home Welfare held at the University of Texas, 
Mr. T. H. Harris, State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, said, "The parish superintendent has never been 
elected by popular vote in Louisiana. It is the opinion of 
the people of our state, and I think this is true of laymen as 
well as school men, that no more unfortunate method of 
selecting the executive head of a local school system could 
be devised." Mr. Harris further said: "A small boards 
the majority of the members of which have been in office for 
a number of years and are more or less familiar with the 
needs and requirements of education can quietly and dis- 
passionately look the field over and make a better selection 
for the office of superintendent that can possibly be made 

by all of the voters in an election We think we have 

made some substantial progress in the development of our 
schools, and I believe that no one familiar with the situation 
\yould think of questioning the fact that our progress has 
been due, in great measure, to the fine caliber of the men 
who have filled the office of superintendent in the various 
parishes. Their leadership has been sane and progressive 
and they were obligated to no individual and to no political 
faction.'' The parish superintendent is not only elected by 
the parish board, but is moreover its executive officer and 
professional adviser. In accordance with law and require- 
ments prescribed by the State Department of Education, he 
works under the board and makes reports to the board. 

The board classifies schools, consolidates school districts, 
establishes high schools where they are needed, elects 
teachers, levies parish-wide taxes for school support and 
has general supervision of the expenditure of all school 
funds. Under such an arrangement the burden of school 
support is properly distributed and educational opportunity 
is equalized. 



County Unit of School Administration 23 

Lousiana's progress under the "county unit" system has 
been noteworthy. High schools have been generously dis- 
tributed within reach of the country boys and girls. A 
school term of nine months has been provided in all schools, 
school supervisors have been employed in most of the 
parishes. Through this means teaching has been greatly 
improved and efficient education is being placed within 
reach of all the children. Thus a state with relatively very 
much more limited resources than Texas, under the county 
unit plan, has forged to the front and is now recognized as 
having the best school system of any of the southern states. 

The County Unit and School Progress in Alabama 

In 1915, the county board of education in Alabama coun- 
ties was given full control of all schools outside of the in- 
corporated towns of two thousand population and over. A 
questionnaire asking for the following information was sent 
to all county superintendents in April, 1921 : Consolidations 
made from 1909 to 1915 and from 1915 to 1921? Teachers' 
homes built from 1909 to 1915 and from 1915 to 1921? 
Total school libraries in county in 1915 and in 1921? Pupils 
transported to school in 1915 and 1921? These questions 
were selected because it was thought they would be typical 
indications of progress. 

Forty-six county superintendents answered the inquiries. 

TABLE No. 1 

SCHOOL PROGRESS IN ALABAMA IN THREE ITEMS 
INDICATED, 1909-'15 AND 1915-'21 

County Consolida- Teachers Total Pupils 

tions Homos School Transported 

Built Libraries 

09-15 15-21 09-15 15-21 1915 1921 1915 1921 

Houston 30 36 25 

St. Clair 06009 35 

DeKalb 5 1 10 100 120 

Pike — 3 _ _ 25 30 — 125 

Wilcox .- 3 — 9 .0 125 



24 University of Texas Bulletin 



Lamar ? 

Madison 

Coffee 9 

Dale 

Lawrence 

Conecuh 

Walker 

Lauderdale 1 

Cullam 

Jefferson 1 

Mobile 7 

Monroe 

Butler 

Washington 

ClebuSrne — 

Chilton 

Talledega 

Morgan 

liowndes 9 

Baldwin 

Chambers 

Coosa 

Pickens 

.Clarke 

Covington 

Franklin 

@re@n 6 

Marion 

Crenshaw 

Blount 

Hale 

Geneva 

Fayette 2 

Clay 

Lee 4 

Bullock 

Montgomery ... . 

Barbour 1 

Jackson 

Randolph 

Ethowa 



4 








8 


39 


15 


52 


12 





2 


40 


80 





1400 








2 


3 


15 





100 


3 





1 


22 


48 





110 








2 


10 


49 








6 





2 


6 


26 





350 


2 








— 


30 





25 


10 





3 


5 


60 





150 


10 








6 


63 








20 





23 


70 


130 


40 


1834 


11 








39 


32 


223 


1113 


10 





2 


10 


57 





500 


4 








12 


70 





150 


3 





1 


? 


15 





110 








25 
35 


30 

40 






3 











26 


6 








30 


34 





346 


. 5 





3 


70 


20 





Few 


1 


1 





6 


6 








10 





2 


50 


150 





200 


6 





1 


20 


150 





350 


3 








20 


30 








2 








4 


8 





80 


— 








10 


38 

















— 


— 








2 








12 


33 





350 


3 








8 


15 








5 





1 


— 


9 





43 


1 








10 


24 


Q 


35 














10 











1 





3 


14 








5 








2 


14 





8 


3 





1 


10 


15 





40 


10 





1 


20 


48 








— 





— 


— 


— 





150 


5 








— 


20 





105 


11 





2 


— 


20 





650 


— 





— 


— 


— 





85 


2 


1 


— 


20 


40 





65 


4 


9 


1 


20 


69 





220 


6 








30 


50 









Totals 31 205 3 51 680 1801 278 9042 



County Unit of School Administration 25 

Table No. 1 gives the results of this study. The progress 
in all items is notable especially when it is considered that 
the period covered by the last series of years was the World 
War period. A number of the county superintendents in 
commenting on progress under the new law suggested that 
more progress would have been made but for the conditions 
incident to the War. 

It should be noted that only 31 consolidations are reported 
as having taken place from 1909 to 1915, while 205 were 
effected from 1915 to 1921, an increase of 561 per cent. 
Only three teacherages were erected during the first period 
while 51 were erected during the period covered by the 
county unit. Another important index to progress is the 
establishment of school libraries. Only in this way can 
the enriched curriculum be put into successful operation 
and school work come to be other than a mere textbook- 
reciting procedure. There was an increase of 164 per cent 
from 681 to 1801 for the periods covered by this report. 

Transportation goes hand in hand with consolidation and 
the establishment of good schools. This activity is also very 
intimately connected with the building of good roads. Only 
three counties had any transportation from 1909 to 1915, 
and the total number of pupils transported was 278. For 
the next six year period, 31 of the 46 counties reporting in- 
dicated that pupils were transported, the total number be- 
ing 9042. 

Comments of county superintendents are interesting. 
Each comment quoted is made by a different official : 
"Consolidation delayed by war and depression." 
"County unit makes for unification and progress.'' 
"People waking up to advantages of consolidation." 
"New buildings erected during past two years almost 
equalled the entire school valuation before the change. We 
are handicapped by bad roads but over 100 children now 
have access to high school that did not have it before. There 
are a number of other advantages that could be set forth. 
Our county is rural in every sense. Salaries increased over 
50 per cent, one-teacher schools reduced 33 per cent and 
many other items of similar nature." 



26 University of Texas Bulletin 

"Wonderful improvement over district unit." 

"The progress has been remarkable in schoolhouse con- 
struction and increase in funds. Our funds have more than 
doubled in this time and about twenty modern school houses 
built. We also have supervision." 

"The county system is a great advantage for the schools." 

"We have a county containing 801 square miles with 107 
school districts. We are now attempting to reduce the num- 
ber by consolidation to 18." 

"To attempt to go to the district plan here would bring 
on a revolution. Nearly all want the county plan." 

"The Mobile City and the Mobile County schools are under 
the control of one board of education (5 members) with one 
executive officer. This is the only county in Alabama which 
has a like system. The Mobile schools were organized prior 
to the state system which accounts for the schools operating 
under a special law." 

"Our people have been slow to take up the new plan, 
but now they are becoming very much enthused over it, and 
another year we will operate on a larger scale in every 
way." 

"Progress in consolidation must necessarily be slow, ow- 
ing to the increased cost of running the school under con- 
ditions such as we have — sparsely settled territory such as 
ours. But when the quality of instruction is taken into 
consideration there is no comparison." 

"Work is just now beginning in earnest here, but we are 
planning great improvements in. the near future. Roads 
are not good yet, but being built. Transportation will fol- 
low." 

"Much progress has been made in this county since the 
county has been made the unit of control." 

"County unit is far better than district plan." 

"We have no consolidated schools. We are trying to 
work up sentiment now. Our real trouble is lack of funds. 
The county boards have power but not funds. The county 
unit is far superior to district unit." 

"County control is getting results. It is a success." 



County Unit of School Administration 27- 

"Our funds are insufficient to make the progress we 
would like." 

"The work of consolidation is fast taking hold of our 
rural people and the time will soon be when consolidation 
where practical will be made." 

"We have not built any large consolidated schools but 
have found it to advantage to eliminate twelve one-teacher 
schools." 

Probably a goodly number of consolidations reported are 
of the class referred to in the last quotation. The elimina- 
tion of weak and inefficient one-teacher schools is, however, 
desirable and can only be effected on any considerable scale 
under a county unit of administration. So long as the dis- 
tricts are a law unto themselves, so long will many of them 
continue the small and inefficient institution. 

This short study of Alabama, incomplete as it is, indicates 
clearly the advantages of the county over the district method 
with respect to the several indices of progress. It is note- 
worthy, too, that a number of the county superintendents 
are outspoken in their endorsement of the county unit over 
the district unit. Not one of the county superintendents 
made an unfavorable report. A system that has marked 
such forward movements in Alabama during these years of 
stress and strain warrants consideration at the hands of 
our own state. 

The necessity of a larger unit of administration than the 
small district which we usually find in the rural sections is 
apparent to anyone who will give the matter serious con- 
sideration. The conditions are the same whether we con- 
sider Alabama, New York, or Texas. Inequalities of wealth 
inevitably arise as compared with school population. This 
makes for inequality of educational opportunity or inequal- 
ity of the burden of support, or both. 

Six Years of School Progress in Alabama 
(Summarized from Table I) 

(Prior to 1915 the schools of Alabama were under the 
district system of control in much the same way that they 



28 . University of Texas Bulletin 

are in Texas today. In 1915 the county was instituted as 
the unit of school administration and control. This figure 
compares the school progress made in Alabama from 1909- 
15, the last six years of the district system of control, with 
the school progress from 1915-21, the first six years of the 
county system of control.) 

CONSOLIDATIONS MADE 

1909-15HHHIiiH31 

i9ib-2ia^ma^BBmK^mm^m^^^^mmmtm^mssmmmmm 205 

TEACHERS' HOMES BUILT 

i9i5-2iwmm^K^^^mBBamammmmmi^^mmtmmm^ammm 51 

TOTAL SCHOOL LIBRARIES 



1909-iimmi^mmmmi^^m 680 
i9i5-2imm amMmmmmmm mi^a^amma^^^^^mm i,80l 

PUPILS TRANSPORTED TO AND FROM SCHOOL 

1909-l£«i 278 

\-\\ iiiffimmiiwi ■ ■—■■■iiiiii ■iiiimiin miii m miiii^i 9,042 

Figure No. 2 



CHAPTER III 

THE OFFICE OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT IN 

TEXAS 

1. Defects in the Present Method of Electing Counts' 

Superintendents in Texas, and Some Practical 

Remedies for the Same 

(a) Defects that Are Apparent. 

The substance of a speech made by a county superintend- 
ent recently at a convention of county superintendents in 
Texas ran about as follows : 

A person can afford to take up city school supervision 
as a life career. It offers a career that justifies careful 
study and thorough preparation before entering upon it. 
It magnifies educational leadership and professional abil- 
ity. But this can not be said of the office of county super- 
intendent. It is a political office. It is a spoil for crafty 
politicians. Our best educators seldom offer for it. They 
do not have the time to work up in party ranks and estab- 
lish the acquaintanceship necessary to get the nomination. 

The days of the county superintendent are few and full 
of troubles. The office is passed around among the electo- 
rate with little regard for professional fitness for it. In 
a high-school position one knows that if he is successful the 
reputation gained there will enable him to secure a better 
place. The same is true of city superintendencies. Such 
conditions are incentives for persons to do their best. They 
warrant one in looking forward to a life career in these 
lines of educational work. But for the county superintend- 
ency these conditions do not exist. Defeat at the polls is 
sure to come at the end of a few years. This usually ends 
one's career as a county superintendent, for, because of the 
residence requirements, he is not eligible as a candidate for 
election in another county. 

The election of the county superintendent should be 
placed in the hands of the county board of education, and 
the local residence requirements should be abolished. Thar 
would tend to place the office of county superintendent on 



30 University of Texas Bulletin 

a plane with that of city superintendent. It would cause 
more of our able men and women in the teaching profes- 
sion to take up the very important work of county school 
supervision. 

Occasionally a strong leader may be elected to the of- 
fice of county superintendent by popular vote. But that 
is the exception. In general, they do not possess the edu- 
cation or the administrative ability that the chief director 
of educational thought in a county should have. Our county 
superintendents in general are not our most representative 
educators. But they are not to blame for it. They are 
the products of an imperfect political system. Our city 
school superintendents would be just as inferior if they 
were elected by popular vote. Time-serving politicians 
would soon crowd out the professionally trained men and 
women. 

By popular vote, it would be absurd for a city to ex- 
pect to obtain a first-class bacteriologist to take charge of 
its water supply, or a first-class civil engineer to direct 
the street paving and the installation of the sewer and water 
mains. Our cities have learned better than that. Technic- 
ally trained experts are elected by the city commission. 
It is time for the counties to profit from the examples the 
cities have set. Skilled administrative experts are seldom 
obtained by direct popular vote. The better method is to 
have elective boards appoint them^ That is representative 
democracy. It is the plan big, business has universally 
adopted. It is the principle upon which the success of the 
commission form of government for cities is based. It is 
also the principle upon which our best city school system 
is based. 

(b) The Example of Big Business. Many of the large 
business corporations of the country have more than ten 
thousand stockholders. That number exceeds the electoral 
vote of most of the counties of Texas. But the head officials 
of big corporations are not elected by direct vote of the 
stockholders. The stockholders elect a board of directors 
from among their number and the board of directors rep- 
resenting the stockholders choose the president and the 



County Unit of School Administration 31 

heads of all the departments for the corporation. Such a 
system of administration has proven best for big business. 
That big business has been a success in this country, no 
one can deny. 

The biggest single piece of business confronting most of 
the counties of Texas is the education of their boys and 
girls. In most counties no other undertaking involves the 
expenditure of such vast sums of money or the selection of 
so many professionally trained employees. The educational 
personnel and the general efficiency of our country schools 
could be vastly improved by following more closely some 
of the successful examples set by big business. The county 
superintendent should be chosen by the county board of 
education, and all school nurses, school supervisors, attend- 
ance officers, and clerical assistants should be chosen by 
the county board of education upon nomination by the 
county superintendent. 

(c) The Example of the Commission Form of Govern- 
ment. A few years ago it was the custom for cities to 
elect by popular vote all their public officials from dog 
police to mayor. Offices requiring the expert service of 
civil engineers, sanitary engineers, trained accountants and 
the like were filled by the men who could get the votes. 
The best vote getters were often among the least competent 
to render the skilled service needed by the city. 

In September, 1900, the city of Galveston was destroyed 
by a tidal wave. Rebuilding it was a colossal undertaking. 
It was a work for skilled experts and for men of large 
business capacity. The emergency called for a new depart- 
ure from the customary method of governing cities. The 
city government was put into the hands of a board of five 
directors called commissioners. The commissioners were to 
manage the affairs of the city as the board of directors 
manage the affairs of a business corporation. When me- 
chanical engineers, electrical engineers, water engineers, 
sanitary engineers, accountants and other skilled employees 
were needed, it was the business of the commission to em- 
ploy the best that could be found anywhere in the country. 
They were not restricted by the residence requirements of 



32 University of Texas Bulletin 

the days when such employees were chosen by popular elec- 
tion. The recovery of the city was phenomenal. The com- 
mission plan worked, so well that Houston soon adopted it. 
With very few exceptions, the cities of less than one hun- 
dred thousand population in America today are either oper- 
ating under the commission plan or under the city manager 
plan of government. 

The commission plan of government has given our cities 
a much better class of technical and professional employees. 
A similar plan would produce a much more competent group 
of professionally trained county school superintendents for 
the common schools of Texas. 

(d) It Is Not Undemocratic for the County Superin- 
tendent to Be Appointed by the County Board of Education. 
The demagogue, the man who knows no better, and the 
weak-kneed politician have often charged that the appoint- 
ment of the county superintendent by the county board of 
education is undemocratic. They say it is taking power 
away from the people. That is a fallacious argument that 
will not bear the light of logical analysis. 
^ The appointment of the county superintendent by the 
county board of education is true to the principles of repre- 
sentative democracy. People choose representatives to 
make laws for them because it is the reasonable and the 
practical thing to do. A small body of legislators can attend 
to the law-making needs of society much better than the 
entire population could do it assembled in one gigantic, tu- 
multuous mass-meeting for that purpose. It has been dem- 
onstrated in other states that the people can procure more 
capable educational leaders for the office of county superin- 
tendent through the county board of education as their rep- 
resentatives than they can by direct election. What is good 
in this respect for the rural schools of Alabama, Delaware, 
Utah, Maryland, and North Carolina would also be good for 
the rural schools of Texas. 

In a democracy all legislators should be elected by pop- 
ular vote. Therein resides the sovereignty of the peo- 
ple. It is through the law-making officials that the voice of 
the people is heard. The lawmakers must be chosen by 



County Unit of School Administration 33 

direct vote, else there can be no democracy. But with the 
law-administering officials the case is different. All admin- 
istrative officials derive their power from the legislature, 
the temple of the people's sovereignty. Consequently, the 
people part with none of their sovereignty when they refer 
the appointment of a non-law-making, or administrative of- 
ficial, to a duly constituted board of the people's representa- 
tives such as the county board of education. And exper- 
ience has taught us that administrative officials requiring 
technical and professional skill can best be obtained by ap- 
pointment. 

(e) The County Board of Education Should Have a 
Free Hand in Choosing the County Superintendent. When 
a city is in need of a school superintendent, the city school 
board is not restricted to the city or to the county in making 
their choice. They may even go outside of the state if they 
see fit. The object is to procure the best person available 
for the position. This would by no means be always pos- 
sible, if city school boards were restricted by the residence 
requirements imposed upon the office of county superin- 
tendent. 

When a business corporation needs a chemist, a bac- 
teriologist, or any other trained expert, its board of direc- 
tors are not restricted by precinct, county, or state boun- 
dary lines. They employ the best person available regard- 
less of where he lives. When a county needs the services 
of an expert auditor, the county commissioners may em- 
ploy any person in the state or out of it for that work. 
But when the common schools of a county are calling for a 
capable educational expert for the position of county super- 
intendent, the law in Texas requires that he shall be 
chosen from within the county by popular vote. This is 
depriving the common school districts of the able educa- 
tional leadership and direction they might otherwise have. 
The present method of electing county superintendents is 
functioning to the disadvantage of the country schools. 
It should be changed. 

The only restrictions that should be placed upon the 



34 University of Texas Bulletin 

county board of education in selecting a county superin- 
tendent are the eligibility requirements and the minimum 
salary prescribed for the office. The eligibility require- 
ments for the office should be so high that none but profes- 
sionally, trained persons, could ever hope to fill it. No one 
should be eligible to appointment as county superintendent 
unless he is a college graduate who has done special work 
in educational administration and supervision, and who 
has had at least five years of experience in the elementary 
schools. In the state of Delaware, no person is eligible for 
appointment to the office of county superintendent who does 
not hold a certificate of administration and supervision 
from the State Department of Education. Such a require- 
ment would be a good thing for Texas. 

There are plenty of educators admirably qualified for the 
office of county superintendent. But most of those who 
have the personality, the education and clear understand- 
ing of rural needs have gone into city school work. Many 
of these people would take up county supervision if the 
political barriers to the office were removed and county 
supervision placed upon a real professional basis. As a 
rule, our best educators will not subject themselves to the 
embarrassment of a political campaign in order to become 
county superintendent. 

The County Board of Education should not even be re- 
stricted by the maximum salary limit in the employment 
of a county superintendent. City school boards are not so 
restricted in the selection of city school superintendents. 
They fix the salaries for the superintendents and all the 
principals and teachers in the school system. Their policy 
is to agree upon the kind of talent necessary to meet the 
needs of their schools and then arrange salary schedules 
that will enable them to secure it. The same policy should 
obtain in the employing of county superintendents, school 
nurses, and all special supervisors that have to do with the 
common schools. This plan is a success in the cities. It 
has proven equally successful for the counties at large in 
those states where it has been trifed. 



County Unit of School Administration 35 

It is a fundamental mistake for a County Board of Ed- 
ucation to haggle or try to drive a salary bargain when a 
good man is under consideration. If the estimated cost of 
living for a county superintendent and his family be 
$2,500 per year, a salary of $3,500 becomes twice as large 
in net value to him as a salary of $3,000. Only a few hunr 
dred dollars difference in salary will draw a much better 
grade of man. 

The difference between a salary of $3,000 and $4,000 in a 
county of 20,000 population is a per capita difference in 
cost of only five cents per year. In a county of 60,000 pop- 
ulation it is a per capita difference in cost of only two and 
two-third cents per year. There are some cities of less than 
35,000 population in Texas that pay their school superin- 
tendents $5,000 per year. The total wealth of those cities 
is not nearly so great as the total wealth of the counties in 
which they are located. The counties are financially able 
to pay better salaries to the county superintendents than 
they are now doing. In the opinion of the writer, no 
county can afford a county superintendent that can be had 
for less than $3,000. 

2. The Method of Electing and Assigning Teachers 

IN THE City Schools Compared with the Method 

OF Electing and Assigning Teachers in 

THE Country Schools of Texas 

As a rule, the county of 30,000 population in Texas has 
a few more than one hundred teachers in the country 
schools. These teachers are employed by the district boards 
of trustees. There are three trustees to the district. The 
school districts are so small and so numerous that it is no 
uncommon thing for a county to have more district school 
trustees than the total number of teachers employed. 

The trustees are elected for two-year terms. The office 
of school trustee is usually unsought. Too often it is filled 
by amateurs unaccustomed to the responsibility it entails, 
and possessing the very crudest sort of educational ideals. 
They desire good schools, it is true, but they have no clear 



36 University of Texas Bulletin 

conceptions of what a good school ought to be. They are 
pretty much in the same position that a person would be if 
he desired to order a bill of goods from a mail-order house 
but had no catalogue. They select the teachers but they 
have very poor means of distinguishing the poor ones from 
the good ones. As a result, teaching positions are often 
filled with home girls and family acquaintances regardless 
of their professional fitness. 

In the cities the case is quite different. The teachers are 
usually nominated by the superintendents, and these nomi- 
nations are generally confirmed bjf the boards of education. 
The superintendent knows he will be held responsible for 
the success or the failure of the school. He knows his suc- 
cess depends very largely upon a competent staff of teachers. 
Consequently, he can not afford to nominate weak teachers. 

Generally, the nomination of a teacher by a superinten- 
dent means that the teacher will be duly elected at the next 
meeting of the board. But that is not always true. If it 
were, it would make an independent bureaucrat of the su- 
perintendent. That is contrary to American political ideals. 
For that reason, it is best to have the school board function 
so as to serve as a possible check on the superintendent's 
authority. At the same time, it would be utter folly to ex- 
pect the average city school board to elect a competent 
corps of teachers without the professional advice and guid- 
ance of the superintendent. 

After the teachers of the city school system have been 
elected, then comes the problem of their assignment. Some 
must work in the high school and others in the different 
■grades of the various grammar schools. The assignment 
of the teachers to their respective positions is a very im- 
portant thing. The teacher who will succeed in one school 
may be a complete failure in another. The superintendent 
usually has a more intimate acquaintance with the needs of 
all the schools of the city and with the temperament and the 
qualifications of each teacher than any member of the school 
board has. For these reasons, in a well-regulated system of 
city schools, the placement of the teachers is usually left 
entirely to the superintendent. 



County Unit of School Administration 37 

Possibly the best method in the United States for the 
election and assignment of rural teachers is that in the 
state of Maryland. The teachers are assigned to the 
various school districts by the county superintendent. But 
the district board of trustees has the power to refuse to 
accept the original assignment of any teacher provided for 
any school under the board's jurisdiction, and upon the noti- 
fication of such refusal, the county superintendent shall 
name another teacher for each teacher so refused by the 
board, provided, however, that the county superintendent 
shall not be required to name more than three teachers for 
the same place in any one school. 

By this means the nomination and placement of the rural 
teachers is under the direction and guidance of the county 
superintendent in a way similar to that in use by the best 
city school systems. The county superintendent is obliged 
to recommend teachers to the positions they can fill best, 
for his success as superintendent depends very largely upon 
the success of his teachers. Such a plan for Texas would 
prevent the employment, by some unsophisticated school 
boards, of many persons who can get teachers' certificates 
but are otherwise totally unfit for the duties of the school- 
room. It would tend to place each teacher in the position 
to which she is by nature and education best adapted, and 
where she could do her best work. It would do much to- 
v/ard the elimination of weak teachers and the raising of 
the standards of the teaching profession. It has meant 
much for the betterment of our city schools. It would mean 
equally as much for the betterment of our country schools. 

3. The Superintendent's Clerical and Professional 

Assistants 

The county superintendent stands at the head of the 
educational system of each county. The teachers are his 
assistants and co-laborers in the work of education. His 
relationship to their appointment and assignment has just 
been discussed. Other necessary assistants are as follows : 

(a) Supervisors. Every modern city system of schools 



38 University of Texas Bulletin 

has one or more expert supervisors, whose business it is to 
assist teachers in special subjects, and to deal with certain 
problems. Certainly if the teachers of the city, who are more 
mature and better^ trained, need supervisors, much more do 
the young and inexperienced teachers of the rural school 
need this assistance. The county board, upon the recom- 
mendation of the county superintendent, should select one 
or more assistants as supervisors of the teaching in the 
rural schools. In all counties there should be a primary 
supervisor and an intermediate supervisor. As funds are 
made available, music and drawing supervisors should be 
employed. Supervisors of manual training and home eco- 
nomics and other vocational subjects might be deferred for 
a time, but surely they too will be needed before the people 
of the rural schools can be said to have as efficient schools 
as are to be found in the cities and towns. 

(b) Stenographic Help. Too often the county superin- 
tendent is but little more than an executive office clerk. 
His power of supervision is merely nominal. Most of the 
time he should spend inspecting schools, conferring with 
teachers, trustees and patrons, and otherwise supervising 
and directing the schools under his jurisdiction is taken up 
with routine clerical duties that could be discharged by a 
sixty-dollar office clerk. This is false economy on the part 
of the state. The office of county superintendent should be 
provided with the clerical assistance necessary to make it 
possible for the county superintendent to do the work of 
school supervision for which the office logically stands. 
The county school superintendent should spend most of this 
time out in the field where the country people and the coun- 
try schools are. He can not do that and attend to all the 
correspondence, school records and statistical requirements 
of the office. 

(c) Health Supervisors. The schools are coming more 
and more to feel their responsibility for the health of the 
pupils. During recent years it has been discovered that 
many pupils who are apparently well but fail to pass their 
grades, do so because of adenoids, bad tonsils, decayed 
teeth, defective hearing or some other hidden physical cause 



County Unit of School Administration 39 

that could be easily corrected by a small amount of medical 
and surgical attention. By the correcting of small phys- 
ical defects, many pupils characterized as dull, "not very 
smart," and the like, are being restored to their normal 
powers and enabled to keep up with their class mates. This 
is calling nurses, oculists, dentists and physicians more and 
more into the service of the schools. The people in all 
progressive communities understand and appreciate the 
services they are rendering. But to be thoroughly and 
systematically done, the work of health inspection and 
health supervision among all the schools of the county must 
be directed by the county superintendent. 
, (d) Attendance Officers, The compulsory school at- 
tendance laws of Texas have made it necessary for the ap- 
pointment of attendance officers in some counties. In other 
counties where the attendance laws are not being well en- 
forced, such officials should be appointed. But the duties 
of this office are such that there are very few people who 
are by nature, experience, and education well fitted for it. 
On that account, some states require that no person be ap- 
pointed to the position of attendance officer who does not 
hold a certificate of approval from the State Department of 
Education. In Texas, such officials should be appointed 
from an eligibility list certified to by the State Superin- 
tendent. Until this is done, the attendance laws will con- 
tinue to be very loosely enforced in some counties for many 
years to come. This is especially true in some of the coun- 
ties where the negro and the Mexican populations are 
heaviest. 

(e) Recreationxil Secretary. Social starvation is driv- 
ing thousands of country people to town every year. There 
are fewer opportunities for entertainment and social inter- 
course in the country now than there were fifty years ago. 
The times have changed. The quilting bees, corn huskings, 
house raising, literary societies, singings, etc., once so pop- 
ular in the country, are no more. 

The hunger for social recreation is as natural as the 
craving for food. Man was not intended for a hermit. 



40 University of Texas Bulletin 

Recreation and social intercourse are essential to his happi- 
ness and contentment. The best people will not long re- 
main in a community where these essential needs are not 
provided for. 

The problem of recreation in rural communities is de- 
volving more and more upon the schools. It is at the 
school that many of the community's social activities nat- 
urally belong, and it is through the school that the rural 
community of the future will have most of its social needs 
satisfied. The recreational program must have a more 
definite place in the scheme of rural education for the fu- 
ture. Many of our educators ahd educational philosophers 
who are deeply aware of this fundamental need of rural* 
society have never seen it in any very clear and satisfactory 
manner. Even Mr. E. P. Cubberley in his Utopian state of 
Osceola fails to make any provision for this need in the ideal 
scheme of education he sets forth. 

Some day in the future — in the near future in some of 
the more progressive counties — when Texas gets its full 
quota of people and its full educational development, there 
will be a recreational secretary working full time and in 
complete harmony with the county superintendent teaching 
people better how to enjoy life. Lyceum courses, chautau- 
quas, reading circles, dramatic clubs, community singings, 
literary organizations, social and athletic org<anizations, 
radio phone receivers, and many other activities for the vi- 
talizing of rural community life will be under the guidance 
of this very important and useful educational expert. There 
should be a full-time recreational secretary, supported either 
by private or by public means, in every county in Texas 
having as many as twenty thousand rural people. 

4. The County Superintendent and the County Board 
OF Education Should Make Up the Annual Budget 
AND Should Purchase the Supplies and Equip- 
ment Neccessary for the Schools of 
THE County 

With an ideally constituted county-unit system, the com- 
mon schools of Texas could be placed upon a much sounder 



County Unit of School Administration 41 

and more economical business basis. Most of the plan here 
proposed is in practical operation in the state of Mary- 
land today. 

With the advice and the assistance of the county superin- 
tendent, the county board of education should prepare an 
itemized, detailed budget for the schools of the county each 
year. The budget should include the amounts necessary 
for globes, charts, library books, school furniture, appa- 
ratus, and other standard supplies for the schools, together 
with estimates for the salaries of teachers, janitors, attend- 
ance officers, and such persons as the successful conduct of 
the schools may require. 

When the itemized bills for the school furniture and the 
materials of instruction for the common schools of the 
county have been made, they should be submitted by the 
county board of education to the school supply companies 
for bids. This should be done by the county board of edu- 
cation with the advice of the county superintendent and 
through the county superintendent as its executive agent, 
for the county superintendent, as a rule, will be better posted 
on the quality of school supplies and the prices for the 
same than any member of the board of education. 

The school supplies thus purchased should be stored in a 
school commissary at the county seat. Some clerk in the 
county superintendent's " office should have charge of the 
school commissary and should issue supplies and equip- 
ment to the various schools upon requisitions from the va- 
rious district school boards approved by the county superin- 
tendent. In this way, hundreds of unsuspecting school 
boards would be protected against the exorbitant prices 
charged by grafting school supply agents. More than that, 
the schools would be protected against the wasteful ex- 
penditure of much of their funds by misguided school boards 
for apparatus and equipment ill adapted to their needs. 
This would mean a saving of thousands of dollars to the 
free schools of Texas every year. While the school is not a 
business institution, nevertheless, when the rules of good 
business are not practiced in its management, education 
must suffer. 



42 University of Texas Bulletin 

5. The County Superintendent's Relation to the 

County Board of Education 

In an ideal educational system the county superintendent 
stands in pretty much the same relation to the county board 
of education that the hired manager does to the board of 
directors of a business corporation. He is both servant and 
adviser. He has no inherent authority. The authority he 
exercises is delegated to him by the board. His chief value 
to the board is his professional, executive, and managerial 
ability. Successful business must have labor, capital, and 
management. So it is with the capital and labor employed 
in the school system of a county. 

The voice and the power of the people reside in the county 
board of education. The county board of education is the 
people's board of representatives. It is from the county 
board of education that the county superintendent derives 
most of his power. It is his business to carry out the man- 
dates of the board. He is its servant and executive agent. 

The county superintendent is also secretary and official 
adviser of the county board of education. As secretary he 
should conduct all correspondence, prepare and keep all 
records, receive all reports required by the board, see that 
such reports are in the required form, and are complete and 
accurate. He should have the right to advise on any ques- 
tion under consideration and to make recommendations con- 
cerning the same, but no right to vote. 

6, The Annual Report of the County Superintendent 

AND THE County Board of Education 

Communities would do more for their schools if they un- 
derstood better what their educational needs were. One of 
the best ways to show the people of a school district where 
they stand educationally is to compare their schools with the 
schools of other districts similarly environed. For this 
purpose, the annual report of the county department of 
education offers an unparalleled opportunity. But the re- 
port should be something more than a financial statement. 



County Unit of School Administration 43 

If possible, it should contain a picture of each schoolhouse 
in the county and a brief survey of each school's achieve- 
ments during the year, together with a. concise statement 
of its condition and needs, and should be published in suffi- 
cient quantities for distribution among the citizens. 

The annual reports for the schools of Harris County dur- 
ing the administration of Superintendent L. L. Pugh and 
for Bexar County during the administration of Superin- 
tendent P. F. Stewart were of inestimable value to the 
rural schools of those counties. Each school was given a 
chance to see itself as it was. For those that were in the 
lead in equipment, local taxes, school and community activi- 
ties and the like, these reports stimulated a pride and in- 
terest in maintaining the high standards already set. For 
those that were lagging behind, there was the stimulus to 
do better. 

The "Rural Review" issued by the schools of Runnells 
County in 1920 is a beautifully illustrated school annual in 
morocco binding. It is a souvenir such as one might be 
well pleased to treasure for a lifetime. It contains 221 pages 
with the pictures of school buildings, school grounds, ath- 
letic teams, clubs, classes, societies, student bodies, teach- 
ers and trustees. Interspersed among the pictures are 
cartoons, school yells, school songs, class mottoes, and edu- 
cational comments from the county superintendent, the state 
superintendent, the county board of education, and some of 
the teachers. While this publication is not an official re- 
port of the county department of education, it is serving 
much the same purpose in awakening educational interest 
and in maintaining educational enthusiasm. 

7. The Official Headquarters of the County Depart- 
ment OF Education 

Too often quarters provided for the county department 
of education in Texas are neither convenient nor decent. 
In many instances the office occupied by the county superin- 
tendent consists of but one room, and that a small one, which 
must serve as storeroom for school supplies, as a meeting 



44 University of Texas Bulletin 

place for the county board, and as a general office. Worse 
still, this cramped and crowded little room is not uncom- 
monly to be found in some obscure nook of the courthouse 
basement, or more often in the very garret, up two or three 
long flights of stairs. 

If the most important work of the state is the educating 
of its children, the most important county office is the office 
of county superintendent. In all county courthouses not 
equipped with elevators, the county superintendent's office 
should be given a convenient and comfortable place on the 
first floor compatible with the dignity and importance of 
public education. Teachers, women's clubs, and civic, edu- 
cational and philanthropic organizations in each county of 
Texas which has slovenly headquarters for the county de- 
partment of education should go about the active creation of 
such a sentiment among the citizenry that the county com- 
missioners will be obliged to provide suitable, well furnished 
rooms for this fundamentally important department of the 
county government. The deparment should have at least 
three rooms: a general office; a room for private confer- 
ences with teachers, school patrons, and trustees; and .i 
storeroom for school supplies. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION 

1. Election and Tenure of Office. The County Board of 
Education should consist of not more than five members 
elected by the qualified voters of the county. A larger 
number would be undesirable. Experience has proven that 
small boards and small committees constitute more efficient 
working bodies than large ones. 

The tenure of office should be so arranged as to give 
stability to the board and continuity to its policies. It 
would be a mistake for the terms of office of all the mem- 
bers of the board to expire at the same time, leaving the 
educational affairs of the county in new and inexperienced 
hands. The term of office should be three years with one- 
third of the membership of the board elected each year. 
The election should be held on some other date than the 
time of the general election and the candidates should be 
voted upon without regard to their party affiliations. There 
should be no party designations on the ticket. The object 
should be to divorce educational matters as far as possible 
from partisan politics. 

Nominations should be made by petitions containing the 
written names of not less than one hundred qualified voters 
residing in the county in order to give the candidate a place 
on the ballot. In general, this plan insures more capable 
persons for local officials than where the ballot is left open 
to the voluntary announcements of candidates. It elim- 
inates many persons with local interests who have small 
ability. 

In Maryland the members of the County Board of Educa- 
tion are appointed by the governor for terms of six years. 
In Texas, it occurs to the author that direct election divorced 
as far as possible from partisan politics, thus emphasizing 
the dignity and importance of education in the minds of 
the electorate, is more deisrable than the Maryland plan. 

2. An Ideally Constituted Board, Mr. M. P. Shawkey, 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction of West Vir- 
ginia, in a recent address to the county superintendents of 



46 University of Texas Bulletin 

Arkansas at Little Rock said : "An ideal schoolboard should 
have in its membership a physician, because of his knowl- 
edge of human nature ; a banker, for his keenness of per- 
ception ; a farmer, for his determination ; and a real estate 
man for his imagination. Teachers, preachers, lawyers, 
politicians, and "tax hawks" should not be put on school- 
boards. Teachers are prejudiced, preachers are prone to 
believe a good Sunday school teacher or a singer in the 
church choir would make a good school teacher, and lawyers, 
politicians, and "tax hawks" have too many axes of their 
own to grind." 

Mr. W. E. Chancellor, one of our best authorities on 
school management, says that the following classes of per- 
sons seldom furnish valuable members for boards of educa- 
tion: inexperienced young men, unsuccessful men, poli- 
ticians, newspaper men, and men in subordinate business 
positions. 

Just here the author begs to differ with Mr. Shawkey 
and Mr. Chancellor. It is quite possible for the lawyer, 
the preacher, the newspaper man, or even the man in a 
subordinate business position to be a most valuable mem- 
ber of a board of education. The only legitimate tests of 
one's fitness for this important office may be summed up in 
three propositions : (1) Is the candidate honest ? (2) Is 
the candidate competent? (3) Is the candidate public- 
spirited ? All other tests are fundamentally unsound. If a 
candidate can successfully meet these three tests, he should 
in no wise be disqualified because of his professional or 
business relationships. 

Mr. Chancellor is substantially correct when he says that 
the ideal member of a board of education should be a person 
accustomed to dealing with bodies of men and with im- 
portant business interests. He should be able to deal with 
the business side of education in a big way ... He 
should not be frightened just because the totals of bond 
issues or annual appropriations are large. He should know 
that one hundred thousand dollars can be 'spent as econom- 
ically and as honestly as ten dollars." 



County Unit of School Administration 47 

3. Powers and Functions of the County Board of Edu- 
cation, (a) Legislative and Judicial Capacity. The acts 
of the board should be entirely legislative and judicial, leav- 
ing the executive duties to the county superintendent. Leg- 
islative duties such as grading and standardizing of rural 
schools ; the establishment of rural high schools ; and if the 
county-unit plan of control were in operation in Texas as it 
should be, the closing of unnecessary schools and the trans- 
portation of children to central schools; the making of an 
itemized annual budget for the schools of the county outside 
of the incorporated towns and cities each year ; the fixing of 
the county school tax rate so as to meet the requirements 
of the budget, provided such rate does not exceed a maxi- 
mum limit set by law; the purchase of school supplies for 
all of the schools of the county at wholesale prices ; and the 
apportionment of the state and county school funds among 
the school districts,* should reside in the county board of 
education. Such judicial matters as the settlement of minor 
controversies between two school districts; the determina- 
tion, upon the advice of the county superintendent, as to 
whether a school is meeting standard requirements, etc., 
should also reside in the county board of education. All 
things of a managerial nature involving expert or profes- 
sional knowledge should be delegated by the board to the 
county superintendent. At any rate, this official should be 
given the power of initiative in the management of such 
matters as the course of study, the selection of textbooks, 
and the nomination of teachers. 

(b) The Budget and the Tax Levy. Each year the 
board should determine the amount of money necessary for 
the maintenance of the schools of the county. In all prob- 
ability the state and local funds will not be sufficient to meet 
the needs. In that event, the board should, within the 
limitations of a prescribed maximum tax rate, ascertain the 
amount of money to be raised by a uniform school tax on 
all the property in the county taxable for school purposes. 



♦See plan of apportionment offered in Chapter I, page 17, of this 
bulletin. 



48 University of Texas Bulletin 

The power to levy the county school tax should also be 
lodged in the county board of education. It is but little less 
than a hollow mockery to give the board the authority to 
make the annual budget for the schools of the county and 
then deny it the power of making the tax levy necessary 
to carry the budget into effect. Yet, this very thing not 
uncommonly .happens. It occurs in the state of Maryland. 
This practically transfers the control of school finances 
from the county board of education to the county commis- 
sioners. While the county boards of education are held re- 
sponsible by the law and by the people for the schools, they 
are in practice deprived of the financial power to meet their 
responsibility.* 

The county board of education can be relied upon as 
knowing more about the county^s educational conditions and 
needs than the county commissioners. It is an unstatesman- 
like error to strip them of so much of their power and use- 
fulness by placing the control of the educational purse 
strings in the hands of the county commissioners, a body 
less well informed about the needs of public education. 

(c) Apportionment of Funds Among the Schools of the 
County. The apportionment of the state and county school 
funds to the districts of the county should be delegated to the 
county board of education. The guiding principle of the 
board in the distribution of these funds should be the equali- 
zation of educational opportunities for children in all parts 
of the county. A just and practicable plan for the distribu- 
tion of state and county school funds on the basis of need 
is proposed in the first chapter of this bulletin. 

(d) Standardizing and Grading of Schools. With the 
counsel and advice of the county superintendent, the County 
Board of Education should grade and standardize all the 
schools under its control. This should include all the 
schools of the county outside of the incorporated towns. 

The advantage of a graded system of schools may be 
summarized as follows: (1) It makes each school a well- 



*Flexner and Bachman, Public Education in Maryland, p. 34, pub- 
lished by th€ General Education Board, 61 Broadway, New York. 



County Unit of School Administration 49 

defined, integral part of a state school system. A child 
completing a grade in a standard school should be qualified 
to enter the grade next above in any standard school in the 
state system. (2) It makes possible certain economies in 
school finances and certain important advantages for school 
children. For example, there is a school of forty-three 
children. Forty of them are below the seventh grade and 
three are qualified for the eighth grade. Two teachers can 
handle the pupils in the grammar grades, provided they do 
not have to teach the three pupils in the eighth grade. 
There are not enough high-school pupils in the school to 
justify the employment of a third teacher, considering the 
condition of the school's finances. It is unfair to the forty 
pupils of the grammar grades for the two teachers to take 
the time justly belonging to them and devote it to the three 
pupils in the grade above. The teachers should render the 
greatest possible service to the greatest possible number of 
pupils at all times. In this instance, the better thing for 
all concerned is that the County Board of Education classify 
such a school as a grammar school and provide transporta- 
tion for the three advanced pupils to the nearest high school. 
It is better for the forty pupils, inasmuch as they will re- 
ceive the undivided time and efforts of the two teachers. 
It is better for the three pupils inasmuch as they will re- 
ceive real high-school advantages with more teachers, better 
equipment, and the inspiration that increased numbers and 
a broader acquaintance always gives. (3) Classification 
gives each school a chance to know its rank. If a self- 
centered community, or a backward community thinks its 
third-class school is one of the first-class, it should be dis- 
illusioned by showing it in an oflficial way just where it 
stands. 

(e) The Establishment of Rural High Schools. Many 
rural districts are small in area, in population, and in wealth. 
These factors bar many school children in Texas from high- 
school privileges every year. To meet this need, legal pro- 
visions for the rural high school have been made. As a rule, 
each rural high school has to serve more than one district. 
Consequently, the establishment and control of rural high 



50 University of Texas Bulletin 

schools does not logically fall to any district board of school 
trustees. It is a natural function of the county board of 
education. The county board of education, with the advice 
of the county superintendent, should make a close estimate 
of the educational needs and possibilities of every school 
district in the county, designating as rural high schools 
those whose locations and equipment make it possible for 
them to serve the greatest number of rural children in the 
high-school grades. 

(f ) Consolidating of Schools. In general, county boards 
of education should be given more latitude in such matters 
as the closing of unnecessary schools, the building of new 
school houses, and the consolidation of schools. There are 
many school patrons so uninformed that they do not 
know how to distinguish a poor school from a good one. 
For example, the three men who constitute the mouthpiece 
of a certain deplorably inbred, stagnant rural school district 
in Texas today, insist that they have a good school. The 
house is a shoebox affair with a door in the end and three 
windows on each side. The location is a bleak, wind-swept, 
rocky glade where it would be dangerous for children to run 
and play. The interior equipment consists of some home- 
made benches, a boxstove in the center of the room, a por- 
tion of the interior wall painted black for a blackboard, a 
water pail and a tin dipper. For the sake of thirty innocent 
children whose future citizenship and success in life are at 
stake, the life of that benighted school district should be 
terminated. The doors of its school should be closed and 
the children put into a big van or automobile bus each morn- 
ing and hauled to a better school less than two miles away. 
But that thing can never be done so long as the district, in- 
stead of the county, remains the unit of school control. 

At another place in Texas, in the very corner of an ill- 
shaped district, is an old run-down schoolhouse — a relic of 
pioneer days. But the district school is still conducted 
there. For many years a sentimental schoolboard has stead- 
fastly refused to see the schoolhouse moved away from the 
graveyard adjacent to it. There would be no place to con- 
duct funeral services, they say. "If funeral services had to 



County Unit of School Administration 51 

be conducted in the open at the graveyard, it might rain 
and get the corpse wet. That would be awful !" 

Those men reverence the spot where their friends and 
deceased ancestors have been buried. It is commendable 
in them that they do. But which is the more sacred, dead 
ancestors or live children? Which is the more inalienable, 
the right to preserve local customs or the right of a human 
child to an education and a fair chance in life? Which 
means the more to the future destiny of the nation, the per- 
petuation of a few extreme notions a few people may have 
about the theory of local self-government, or a universally 
well-educated citizenship ? 

For the sake of economy and the profitable application of 
our public school funds, and for the sake of a more uni- 
form distribution of educational opportunities to all the 
children of the land, the county instead of the district, 
should be made the unit of control in such matters as the 
establishment of rural high schools, the consolidation of 
school districts, and the transportation of children to and 
from school. These advantages are feasible only through a 
reorganization of the educational resources of each county 
along good business and educational lines. 

(g) The Election of County School Officials. The elec- 
tion of all school officials whose authority and influence are 
of a general nature extending to all the schools of the county, 
outside of the large independent districts, should be com- 
mitted to the county board of education as provided in chap- 
ter II of this discussion. This should include the county su- 
perintendent, supervisors, assistant county superintendent, 
attendance officers, school nurses, school physicians, and the 
stenographic and clerical assistants necessary for the effi- 
cient conduct of the county superintendent's official duties, 
(h) The Purchase of School Supplies. Rural schools as 
well as city schools need teaching apparatus. Good plain 
maps, good charts, and illustrative materials for the pri- 
mary grades, good blackboards, sand boards, modeling clay, 
color materials, a globe, supplies for nature study work, 
magnifying glasses, a good microscope, simple illustrative 



52 University of Texas Bulletin 

physical and chemical apparatus, bench tools and garden 
tools, germinating trays, a farm terracing level, a Bab- 
cock milk tester ; a museum with collections of insects, weed 
seed, flowers, fossils, etc., peculiar to the district; an oil 
stove, cooking utensils, a table and a sewing machine ; play- 
ground apparatus for individual and for group games — 
these are some of the important equipment a modern rural 
school should have. 

District boards of trustees, as a rule, do not know what 
apparatus is needed, where to buy it, and what price to pay 
for it. The writer has seen HageFs Philosophy, Gibbon^s 
Rome, Darwin's Descent of Man, and even a Masonic Guide 
in rural school libraries. As previously stated, there should 
be an estimate made by the county superintendent each year 
of the kind and amount of standard school equipment needed 
for all the schools in the county and submitted to the county 
board of education. Then the board should provide for the 
purchase of such supplies at reasonable prices and for the 
establishment of a school commissary at the county seat."*" 
The board should also see that proper provision is made at 
each school for the care of tools and equipment.. 

(i) Summary of the Powers that Should Be Exercised 
by a County Board of Education. 

1. To elect a county superintendent and fix his salary 
as is done by city school boards in the case of city school 
superintendents. 

2. Upon the advice and nomination of the county super- 
intendent, to appoint and employ such attendance officers, 
school supervisors, school nurses, school physicians, and of- 
fice assistants as the successful conduct of the schools of 
any county may require. 

3. To close unnecessary schools, build new schoolhouses, 
consolidate schools, convey children to school, classify the 
elementary schools, and organize rural high schools. 

4. With the advice of the county superintendent, to 
make up the annual school budget for all the schools of the 
county, outside of the large independent districts, and to levy 



*See page 41 of this bulletin. 



County Unit of School Administration 53 

a uniform school tax on all the property of the countjr^ tax- 
able for school purposes, provided such a tax does not exceed 
a certain maximum set by law. 

5. To expend and apportion all state and county school 
funds so as to equalize educational advantages for all the 
children of the county.* 

6. To arrange for the cooperative purchasing of sup- 
plies and equipment for all the schools of the county under 
the board's jurisdiction and to provide a store room for the 
same at the county seat. 

7. To issue an annual report of the county department 
of education. 



*See plan for distribution of state and county school funds set 
forth in this bulletin, pp. 17-19. 



CHAPTER V 
THE DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

1. Whjy the District? While the public schools of the 
future must rely more upon state and county taxation for 
financial support, it would, nevertheless, be exceedingly un- 
wise to abolish all district lines. The school district must 
remain as a unit of school taxation and to some extent as a 
unit of school administration. State and county taxes should 
be used for general maintenance purposes; that is, for 
teachers' salaries and to meet the minimum requirements 
set by the state. But should any district desire to maintain 
higher standards of education than the state and county 
funds will provide, it should have the privilege of doing so. 
The district is an essential unit in the school system and 
should always possess the power to tax itself for new sites, 
buildings, and equipment commensurate with its civic pride 
and educational desires.* 

2. Why the District Board of School Trustees? Since 
the district must remain as one of the essential units for 
taxation, some form of administrative machinery within 
the district is logically necessary. This gives rise to the dis- 
trict board of trustees. 

3. The Election of the District Board of Trustees. The 
lack of interest in school trustee elections is quite general 
in the rural districts of all the states. Better roads, rural 
free delivery of mail, ruraJ telephones, daily papers, and 
current magazines are operating to make the farmer a cit- 
izen of the world rather than of the sclool district. At any 
rate, he seldom goes to the polls and votes for school trustee. 
For the school year of 1921-1922 forty-eight of the sixty- 
three functioning trustees in the rural districts of Wichita 
County were appointed by the county superintendent. Most 
of these appointments were made because of failures on the 
part of the school districts to hold school trustee elections. 

Indeed, so little interest is taken in the election of trustees 
in the common school districts, in literally hundreds of places 



*See pages 12 and 13 for a fuller discussion of the district as a 
taxing unit. 



County Unit of School Administration 55 

in Texas, that it is not an unusual thing for no election to be 
held at all. A full vote is seldom polled except in cases 
where a community is rent with bitter local strife. Under 
such conditions many of the votes cast are influenced more 
by prejudice and revenge than by an unbiased desire for the 
welfare of the schools. For these reasons, some states have 
seen fit to have all the district trustees appointed by the 
county board of education. That is true of Alabama, Mary- 
land and North Carolina. In Virginia the district trustees 
are appointed by the school trustee election board composed 
of three members. In Louisiana, Delaware, and Utah the 
county board of education and the county superintendent 
have charge of all the schools of the county. 

4. Powers and Duties of District Trustees, (a) Dis- 
trict School Revenues. All state and county school funds 
should be apportioned among the districts by the county 
board of education on the basis of need.* These funds and 
the required district school tax should be sufficient to meet 
the required minimum school standards prescribed by the 
state. But a school that just meets the minimum standards 
and no more may not be in keeping with a community's 
pride and educational desires. For this reason districts 
often vote additional taxes and make further improvements. 
The expenditure of all funds thus raised logically falls to 
the district board of trustees. 

(b) The Tax Rate, the School Budget, and the Tax Levy. 
The district school tax rate should be flexible. The school's 
financial needs will vary from year to year. Consequently, 
the tax rate should vary accordingly. The maximum rate 
to be levied should be fixed by popular vote. The district 
trustees should fix and levy such a rate within this maxi- 
mum as will meet the needs of the school budget each year. 

(c) Custodians of School Property. Public property is 
unsafe without a responsible custodian. One of the chief 
justifications for the board of district school trustees is 
that the school property may have such a custodian. The 
care of the school grounds, the maintenance and repair of 



♦See page 17. 



56 University of Texas Bulletin 

the buildings, and the protection of the library books, ap- 
paratus and other school equipment are duties for the dis- 
trict trustees. But too often they do not take this respon- 
sibility very seriously. The schoolhouse doors stand open 
during vacation, the floors and the furniture are damaged 
by campers and trespassers, and the library books are car- 
ried av^ay. It should be a penal offense chargeable to the 
trustees for an outside schoolhouse door to go unlocked 
when school is not actually in session, or when the build- 
ing is not otherwise in use for the general welfare of the 
community. 

(d) New^ School Buildings. The building of a school- 
house is a new experience to the average trustee in the 
common school districts. Architects, blue prints, plans and 
specifications, and building contracts are things foreign to 
his acquaintance. As a result, the plans of most of the 
schoolhouses erected by district trustees without the guid- 
ing advice and approval of the county superintendent or 
some other educational expert have been determined more 
by the needs of the past than by the needs of the present 
and the future. Untinted walls, bad lighting, poor heating 
and ventilation, much wasted floor space, no cloak rooms, no 
plumbing, absence of basements and presence of unused 
attics are but a few of the errors well-intending school 
trustees have made in the construction of schoolhouses. 
No contract for building a school house in a common school 
district should become legally binding without the approval 
of the county superintendent. 

(e) The Employment of Teachers. In one district a 
teacher was employed because she was in need ; in another, 
because she was a home girl ; in another, because she was a 
member of a certain church; and in yet another, because 
she could sing in the church choir and teach a Sunday 
School class, in another because she could be had for forty 
dollars, and in another because her father was a leading 
democrat. Politics, religion, and influences of a local na- 
ture quite commonly determine the election of teachers. 
This condition will be perpetuated in many backward com- 
munities so long as the district-trustee system of complete 

control obtains. 



County Unit of School Administration 57 

Trustees who know no better too often employ teachers 
whose only stock of educational ideas have been gained 
through preparation for the county teacher's examination. 
They are incapable of instructing and guiding children. 
They have no grasp of modern economic tendencies and no 
training for rural leadership. But so long as teachers are 
certificated by academic examinations, we may expect to 
have some of their kind. The passing of examinations in 
grammar, arithmetic, spelling and geography is an in- 
sufficient test of one's qualifications for the high and re- 
sponsible office of rural school teacher. But all persons 
equipped with teacher's licenses look alike to some unsoph- 
isticated country school boards. 

The country school is a lodge and a rendezvous for the 
weakest of the weak and inefficient teachers. The direct 
appointment of teachers by district boards is a hindrance 
and a menace to education in many country districts. No 
teacher should be employed by a district board of trustees 
except upon the nomination and recommendation of the 
county superintendent. The plan in use in Maryland would 
be a good one for Texas. 



CHAPTER VI 

SUMMARY OF THE ADVANTAGES OF THE COUNTY 

UNIT SYSTEM OVER THE DISTRICT SYSTEM 

OF SCHOOL CONTROL 

1. Our ablest leaders in education seldom offer for the 
office of county superintendent. So long as the office re- 
mains a political one, it will be a prey to politicians and 
educational weaklings. By giving the county board of edu- 
cation the power to elect the county superintendent and not 
restricting them in their choice to the county or even to the 
state, many of our most capable educators would be at- 
tracted into the work of county school supervision. That 
would place the office on a professional basis similar to that 
of city school superintendents, a thing impossible under the 
present system. 

2. Men prepare for city school supervision as a life ca- 
reer. They do not do so for county supervision. When the 
county unit plan is adopted and the office of county superin- 
tendent is placed upon a professional basis, it will become 
a worth-while inducement to young men of good ability to 
take college courses in school administration preparatory to 
county supervision as their life work. The rural schools 
should be directed by the best supervisory talent of the 
country. 

3. The district as the sole and only taxing area causes 
untold injustice and inequality in the financing of public 
education. Some wealthy districts can maintain excellent 
schools on a low tax levy. Some districts can not even 
maintain the minimum length of term with the maximum 
tax levy. If the children of all the people are to be edu- 
cated, the wealth of all the people must foot the bills. With 
the county as the unit for school taxation there will be a 
more equitable distribution of the burden of support and 
of the opportunities for education throughout the county. 

4. No district has the right to produce ignorant citizens 
to turn loose on the rest of the county. With the county 



County Unit of School Administration 59 

as the unit of school taxation and administration, society 
can more securely protect itself against the dangers of crime 
and ignorance. There are many poverty-sti'icken commu- 
nities and backward communities that can never participate 
in the full joys and benefits of education without the aid 
and guidance of a strong county administration. 

5. The county as the unit of school administration will 
remove many unfortunate rural schools from the impedi- 
ments of local jealousies, neighborhood foibles, and close- 
fistedness that will forever obstruct their progress under 
the district system of control. 

6. The establishment of rural high schools, the locating 
of new schools and new building sites, and the transporta- 
tion of pupils to and from school can best be done under the 
county unit plan. 

7. Big men court big responsibilities. Little men shun 
them. With a greater concentration of responsibility and 
authority in the county board of education, business and 
professional men of large caliber would consent to become 
members of the board. This has proven decidedly true in the 
case of the commission form of government for cities, and 
equally true for the good of the common schools where the 
county unit plan of school management has been tried out. 

8. In the average district, the sentiment prevails that 
any one will do for school trustee. The best men of the com- 
munity usually prefer not to offer for the office. They look 
upon it as a thankless job with many annoying little re- 
sponsibilities too small to engage their time. Were it an 
office of greater responsibility they would have a different 
attitude toward it. But as it is, their indifference toward 
the office is producing many small-caliber trustees lacking 
the acumen, culture, and powers of leadership that school 
officials should have. 

9. It is better for all the common schools of any county 
to be under the management of one capable, responsible 
county board than to be under two or three score of district 
boards with the crudest sort of educational ideals, their 
actions controlled very largely by partisan leanings, and 
with the sense of responsibility to the high cause of educa- 



60 University of Texas Bulletin 

tion resting very lightly upon them. Make a position one of 
responsibility for the welfare of all the schools of the county 
and the persons filling it will take their obligations more 
seriously than if they pertained to one small district only. 
More than that, you will get better persons for the position. 

10. The county superintendent can be a more efficient 
professional adviser to one board of education responsible 
for all the schools of the county than he can be to a large 
number of district boards. 

11. The county superintendent and the county board of 
education can enforce higher standards of qualifications on 
the part of the teaching staff of the county than is possible 
when the choice and the employment of the teachers is left 
to the district trustees. Indeed, every year district trustees 
employ many persons holding teachers' certificates who 
would never be inflicted upon an unsuspecting public at all, 
were their employment left to the county board of education 
and the county superintendent in the way teachers for city 
schools are usually nominated and employed. District trus- 
tees too often employ teachers just because they have met 
the legal requirements of a teacher's certificate. To many 
trustees, all persons holding a teacher's certificate look alike. 
A teacher's certificate is a very poor evidence of one's abil- 
ity to teach children and to direct the educational thought of 
a community. 

12. County boards of education are less liable than dis- 
trict boards to such influences as "home girls," "daughters 
of first families," church affiliations, political creeds, need 
of employment, local feuds, etc., in the hiring of teachers. 

13. The teacher who will succeed in one district may be 
a rank failure in another. Each teacher should be placed 
in the position she can fill best. The county superintendent 
and the county board of education can come nearer placing 
all the teachers of a county in the positions they fit best 
than is possible for the district boards of trustees to do. 
The teaching staff:' of each county should be placed so as to 
render the greatest service possible for all the schools of 



County Unit of School Administration 61 

the county. The Maryland plan of electing and assigning 
teachers would be a good one for Texas. 

14. The district system of control is an example of local- 
self government carried to the extreme. It is a case of 
democracy defeating its own ends. The county unit, where 
it has been tried, produces better results. It is a practicable 
unit of representative democracy standing for the greatest 
degree of freedom compatible with the best interest of the 
greatest possible number of people in an entire county. 

15. "The district system is moro autocratic than demo- 
cratic. Because of the failures to hold elections, the superin- 
tendent often has to appoint a majority of the trustees. 
Even when trustees are elected, the vote is often so small 
as not to be at all representative. The present system of 
local school control is a case of democracy gone to seed. 
There is neither wisdom nor democracy in it." 

16. By placing all the schools of the county under one 
board of directors, a great financial saving can be effected. 
This can be done by purchasing supplies for all the schools 
in large quantities, by closing some schools and transporting 
the children to others with better facilities for instruction, 
and by a more judicious expenditure of all school revenues 
than is possible under district control and scattered respon- 
sibility. 

17. What would be the effect on a city school system 
if each ward elected its own school board and maintained 
its schools independently of the other wards and schools 
of the city? It would destroy the central high school, and 
be a cause for many unnecessary duplications of equipment 
and expenditures. That is exactly what the country school 
districts are doing. With the county as the unit, much un- 
necessary waste "could be eliminated. 

18. Many counties have more than one hundred school 
trustees. Under the county system there would be only 
five. Would it be easier to elect a school board of this lim- 



62 University of Texas Bulletin 

ited number who manifest an interest in popular education 
than it would to secure one hundred of the same character ? 

19. The county unit does not call for the abolishing of 
all districts and district lines. With some possible changes, 
the districts should remain just about as they are. The 
country school district always will be an essential taxing 
unit. There should be some local representative or board 
of representatives either chosen or appointed for each dis- 
trict to look after the building and to notify the county 
board of needed supplies. The autonomy of the district 
must not be destroyed. But many of the prerogatives 
now exercised by the district should be delegated to the 
county for their performance just as was done a number of 
years ago by the cities when they saw the wisdom of bring- 
ing all the ward schools into one consolidated, unified sys- 
tem under one centrally organized board of education. 

20. The county unit will put the schools of the county 
on a better business basis. The board would make up the 
budget necessary for the equal maintenance of all the 
schools of the county, levy the taxes on the entire wealth of 
the county, and distribute the proceeds among the schools 
in an equitable manner. There are great variations in the 
amounts of taxable wealth in the districts. Some are rich, 
others are poor. Some districts with large valuations do 
not have to levy a high tax rate in order to maintain ex- 
cellent schools. This is especially true in districts having 
mines, refineries, oil fields, railroads, factories, and other 
forms of wealth they did not produce. Other districts with 
low valuations may not be able to equip and maintain decent 
schools on the maximum rate of levy. The county unit will 
equalize these differences and make adequate financial sup- 
port possible for all the districts. 

21. School districts in Texas are very ill-shaped and ir- 
regular. Many of them have been formed by the process 
known in politics as gerrymandering. Boundary lines have 
been made to extend far up and down railroads and far up 
and down river valleys to enclose desirable taxable property 
for the benefit of some particular district. This is a most 
objectionable impediment in the way of a uniformly good 



County Unit of School Administration 63 

i 
system of schools. So long as the district system remains 
in control, there will be rich districts and poor districts, 
good schools and poor schools, and literate sections and il- 
literate sections side by side in every county of the state. 
Educational development v^ill continue spotty and uneven. 
Gerrymandering in the formation of special tax district -^ 
always operates to the disadvantages of the less favored 
localities. County control would cure nearly all the evils 
that have grown out of this practice. 



REFERENCES 

Bonner, H. T., "Statistics of State School Systems 1917- 
1918," Bulletin U. S. Bureau of Education, 1920, No. 11. 

Cubberley, E. P., "State and County Educational Reor- 
ganization," New York, MacMillan Company, 1914. 

Cubberley, E. P., "The Improvement of Rural Schools," 
New York, Houghton, Mifflin, 1912. 

Cubberley, E. P., "School Funds and Their Apportion- 
ment," New York, Teachers College, Columbia University, 
1905. 

Cubberley, E. P., "State and County School Administra- 
tion," New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1912. 

Betts, G. H., "New Ideals in Rural Education," New York, 
Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 

Miller, E. T., "Financial History of Texas," Austin, Uni- 
versity of Texas, 1916. 

Miller, E. T., Revised school laws for the states of Ala- 
bama, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee and 
Utah. 

Miller, E. T., Annual reports of the County Superintend- 
ents of Texas filed in the State Department of Education for 
the school years of 1919-1920, 1920-1921, 1921-1922. 



